VOX POPULI, VOX DEI.—BLACK.
I never said that the vox populi was of course the vox Dei. It may be; but it may be, and with equal probability, a priori, vox Diaboli. That the voice of ten millions of men calling for the same thing is a spirit, I believe; but whether that be a spirit of Heaven or Hell, I can only know by trying the thing called for by the prescript of reason and God's will.
* * * * *
Black is the negation of colour in its greatest energy. Without lustre, it indicates or represents vacuity, as, for instance, in the dark mouth of a cavern; add lustre, and it will represent the highest degree of solidity, as in a polished ebony box.
* * * * *
In finite forms there is no real and absolute identity. God alone is identity. In the former, the prothesis is a bastard prothesis, a quasi identity only.
April 30. 1832.
ASGILL AND DEFOE.
I know no genuine Saxon English superior to Asgill's. I think his and
Defoe's irony often finer than Swift's.
May 1. 1832.